Life has no limitations, except the ones you make.
—Les Brown
Real life is, to most men, a long second-best, a perpetual compromise between the ideal and the possible; but the world of pure reason knows no compromise, no practical limitations, no barrier to the creative activity.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
The cynic says, “One man can’t do anything.” I say, “Only one man can do anything.”
—John W. Gardner (1912–2002) American Activist
We have more than we use.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
What’s the most exceptional thing you’ve done this week? What’s the most exceptional thing you will do next week?
—Robert Cooper (b.1947) British Diplomat
Reach up as far as you can, and God will reach down all the way.
—Unknown
Questions provide the key to unlocking our unlimited potential.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
Possibilitizing is overcoming while you’re undergoing.
—Robert H. Schuller (1926–2015) American Christian Televangelist, Author
Everyone needs to be valued. Everyone has the potential to give something back.
—Diana, Princess of Wales (1961–97) English Royal, Humanitarian, Peace Activist
Your past is not your potential. In any hour you can choose to liberate the future.
—Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) American Author, Editor, Orator
The things you want are always possible; it is just that the way to get them is not always apparent. The only real obstacle in your path to a fulfilling life is you, and that can be a considerable obstacle because you carry the baggage of insecurities and past experience.
—Les Brown
It is our duty as men and women to proceed as though the limits of our abilities do not exist.
—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955) French Jesuit Philosopher, Paleontologist
Independent of others and in concert with others, your main task in life is to do what you can best do and become what you can potentially be.
—Erich Fromm (1900–80) German-American Psychoanalyst, Social Philosopher
Human potential, though not always apparent, is there waiting to be discovered and invited forth.
—William Watson Purkey (b.1929) American Educationalist
A man can be as great as he wants to be. If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done.
—Vince Lombardi, Jr. (1913–70) American Football Player, Coach
Life is a video game. No matter how good you get, you are always zapped in the end.
—Anonymous
Perhaps nobody ever accomplishes all that he feels lies in him to do but nearly every one who tries his power touches the walls of his being occasionally, and learns about how far to attempt to spring.
—Charles Dudley Warner (1829–1900) American Essayist, Novelist
In the depth of winter I finally learned there was inside me an invincible summer.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
Free the child’s potential, and you will transform him into the world
—Maria Montessori (1870–1952) Italian Physician, Educator
Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.
—John Wooden (1910–2010) American Sportsperson
An old colored brother is said to have finished his prayer with words like these: and now good Lord; I know that you ain’t going to let nothing come to me that me and you together can’t handle.
—Unknown
We must learn our limits. We are all something but none of us are everything.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
Everyone’s got it in him, if he’ll only make up his mind and stick at it. None of us is born with a stop-valve on his powers or with a set limit to his capacities, There’s no limit possible to the expansion of each one of us.
—Charles M. Schwab (1862–1939) American Businessperson
Our aspirations are our possibilities.
—Sarah Ban Breathnach (b.1947) American Self-help Author
I’ve discovered I’ve got this preoccupation with ordinary people pursued by large forces.
—Steven Spielberg (b.1946) American Film Director, Screenwriter, Film Producer, Businessperson
It’s a sin to be poor! He wasn’t referring to moral turpitude, but rather to “the frustration of potentiality”. He believed and taught that, when we establish ourselves in the consciousness of God, the whole universe moves to flow into us with its abundance of life and substance. This is obviously what Jesus had in mind when he said, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well”.
—Unknown
Believing in people before they have proved themselves is the key to motivating people to reach their potential.
—John C. Maxwell (b.1947) American Christian Professional Speaker, Author, Clergyman
What great things would you attempt if you knew you could not fail.
—Robert H. Schuller (1926–2015) American Christian Televangelist, Author
There are admirable potentialities in every human being. Believe in your strength and your youth. Learn to repeat endlessly to yourself, ‘It all depends on me’.
—Andre Gide (1869–1951) French Novelist
Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they’re yours.
—Richard Bach (b.1936) American Novelist, Aviator
Our being is subject to all the chances of life. There are so many things we are capable of, that we could be or do. The potentialities are so great that we never, any of us, are more than one-fourth fulfilled.
—Katherine Anne Porter (1890–1980) American Short-Story Writer, Novelist
For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? And what is it to cease breathing but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?
—Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-born American Philosopher, Poet, Painter, Theologian, Sculptor
Too many of those with unrealized aspirations have set them aside due to fear of failure. The bigger the dream, the greater the fear. Doing less than our best allays this fear. I could have done better if I’d tried, we assure ourselves. Among the least appreciated reasons for doing superficial, second-rate work of any kind is the comfort of knowing it’s not our best that’s on the line. By not trying too hard, we avoid learning what our true potential is, and having to fulfill it. Doing our best can be deeply threatening. It forces us to consider what we’re actually capable of accomplishing. Once we learn that lesson, we can’t unlearn it. Our true potential becomes both a shining light we can follow and an oppressive burden of expectation that might, or might not, be met.
—Unknown
One’s only rival is one’s own potentialities. One’s only failure is failing to live up to one’s own possibilities. In this sense, every man can be a king, and must therefore be treated like a king.
—Abraham Maslow (1908–70) American Psychologist, Academic, Humanist
Are you closer right now to where you want to be than you were a half-hour ago?
—Robert Cooper (b.1947) British Diplomat
I can’t believe that God put us on this earth to be ordinary.
—Lou Holtz (1893–1980) American Stage Performer
If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of potential—for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints; possibility never.
—Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) Danish Philosopher, Theologian
We never know how high we are till we are called to rise. And then, if we are true to plan, our statures touch the skies.
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet
O, do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks! Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle. But you shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come to you by the grace of God.
—Phillips Brooks (1835–93) American Episcopal Clergyman, Author
What each must seek in his life never was on land or sea. It is something out of his own unique potentiality for experience, something that never has been and never could have been experienced by anyone else.
—Joseph Campbell (1904–87) American Mythologist, Writer, Lecturer
Genuine confidence is a way of thinking about yourself and your abilities. Confidence is your perception of your own potential; it’s a kind of long-term thinking that powers you through the obstacles and tough times, helping you solve problems and putting you in the way of success. Your confidence is quite a separate matter from your social skills.
—John Eliot (b.1971) American Psychologist, Academic
Everyone knows on any given day that there are energies slumbering in him which the incitements of that day do not call fourth. … Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake. Our fires are damped, our drafts are checked. We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental and physical resources. … Stating the thing broadly, the human individual thus lives fare within his limits he possesses powers of various sorts he habitually fails to use.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
Every organism has one and only one central need in life, to fulfill its own potentialities.
—Rollo May (1909–94) American Philosopher
Now intelligence seemed quantifiable. You could measure someone’s actual or potential height, and now, it seemed, you could also measure someone’s actual or potential intelligence. We had one dimension of mental ability along which we could array everyone… The whole concept has to be challenged; in fact, it has to be replaced.
—Howard Gardner (b.1943) American Cognitive Psychologist
Focus on your potential instead of your limitations.
—Joe DiMaggio (1914–99) American Baseball Player
Today Americans are overcome not by the sense of endless possibility but by the banality of the social order they have erected against it.
—Christopher Lasch (1932–94) American Historian, Moralist, Social Critic
To excel means to reach beyond the best you have ever given because doing so matters to you personally, for its own sake. It means to run your own race—as an individual, team, or organization. To excel is to know your greatest strengths and passions, and to emphasize them while honestly admitting and managing your weaknesses.
—Robert Cooper (b.1947) British Diplomat
Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
If I had some idea of a finish line, don’t you think I would have crossed it years ago?
—Richard DeVos (1926–2018) American Businessman, Philanthropist
If you put yourself in a position where you have to stretch outside your comfort zone, then you are forced to expand your consciousness.
—Les Brown